New boss John Coleman is confident he can find the solution to Gillingham’s goalscoring problems.
The lack of goals has been a hindrance to the Gills for some time – a challenge that the past three managers haven’t been able to find an answer to.
Gillingham were relegated from League 1 in 2022 after scoring a paltry 35 times. That total was bettered by just one the following year. Last term they managed an improved 46 – still the second lowest in the division, just two more than the bottom side.
Once again this season, the Gills have struggled for goals, despite a summer recruitment campaign that looked to put the problem to bed once and for all. Under sacked manager Mark Bonner, Gillingham managed to score just 22 in 23 games.
Over three and a half seasons, that’s 139 goals in 161 games.
Coleman – who was a prolific non-league striker in his playing days – will need to turn that trend around if he wants to get the club’s promotion campaign back on track.
“It’s all about buying more tickets to the raffle, isn’t it?” he said.
“It’s getting yourself into situations that you can make opportunities.
“There’s been a big explosion over the last couple of years about xG (expected goals).
“You don’t win for xG but it can, to a certain extent, educate you on how the game’s been played.”
According to footystats.org the Gills are the fourth worst in the division for xG, with 1.13.
Coleman said: “There’s been times when we’ve had 28 shots to their three, and we’ve got beat and I’d spout that out after the game.
“I’ve then watched the video the next day, seven of them have been pea-rollers, two of them have been blocked, one of them being a half-cross shot that was never going to go in. So not realistic opportunities.
“I think if you’re going to score goals, you’ve got to make realistic, takeable opportunities. You’ve got to increase your xG but you’ve got to play on the front foot and you’ve got to have sustained pressure.
“I don’t see enough of it. The games I’ve been watching this season, I’ve been watching a lot. I don’t see teams pinning teams in.
“I was brought up watching Liverpool in the 70s and once they got a team in the final third, they kept them there until they scored, and then they kept them there until they scored again. You don’t see too much of that now.
“It’s like a little bit of ‘you have it, we have it’. I want us to attack, and they clear it to us, and then we attack, and then they clear it to us until we score. We keep knocking at the door until we knock it in.
“There’s no guarantee you can do that, but you’ve got to get the players in a mindset that they want to sustain attacks, so not have an isolated attack.
“Plenty of attacks in each half, and particularly kicking to that end where the fans are going to be getting behind you. They’re going to be getting excited.
“There’s nothing better than scoring in front of your own fans. I know myself as a player, running behind the goal and celebrating with them. It’s the best feeling in the world.”
The Gills under the Galinsons inherited Neil Harris as manager but made a change, partly because the football wasn’t attractive enough.
Stephen Clemence and Mark Bonner have come and gone after being unable to get the Gills playing the exciting football that was expected.
Coleman’s got his own way of setting teams up but knows the only aim is promotion.
“You don’t get marks for being aesthetically pleasing,” he said.
“There’s a very rigid currency in football and that’s points.
“I’ve come to the club to make them play a style of football that, one, I want to watch and two, I believe can be successful.
“I can’t guarantee results, no-one can guarantee results. You can’t even look at Pep (Guardiola) at the moment. What you can do is change your parameters of your success.”
Coleman says he wants his team to play “a front-foot, high-press game.”
He added: “I want to take the game to the opposition. I want people to encourage each other. I want a positive attitude.
“I won’t get everything right. I’m the first to admit that and when things go wrong, the first thing I look at is myself and what could I have done differently? There’ll be no excuses.
“I try to be honest after every game. People sometimes don’t like that anymore and the more and more you see managers’ interviews after the game, they get pulled apart.
“Every manager gets pulled apart because whatever they say can’t appease everybody because of the advent of social media. All I can do is be honest and that’s all I’ve tried to build my career on.
“I’ve had players who’ve gone through a brick wall for me and if you need any testimonies, you’ve only got to look at my phone and how many texts I’ve had of former players, who are delighted to see me here working again.”
